193 Youth in Care of Illinois’ Child Welfare Agency Missing in 2025

That is a shocking headline…not really. There are many missing children in the foster care system each year. 193? Eh? Oh well…. nothing to see here…

193 children is a LOT OF CHILDREN!!!😡😾👊

“On Oct. 21, The Center Square requested public records from the Department of Children and Family Services to show the number of missing youth in care with whereabouts unknown per year since 2019.

Numbers Statehouse candidate Bailey Templeton said she received from a Freedom of Information Act request showed 16 did not return to their previous placement in 2023, but jumped nearly 1,000% to 166 missing children in 2024. The agency said previous numbers the agency released were “not completely accurate.”

“The numbers of missing children peaked in 2021 for a total of 284, 23 of which have been contacted but whereabouts were unknown.

The number of missing children for 2025, through Oct. 9, is 193, 26 of which were listed as continuing contact but their location not being disclosed.”

“DCFS data show a peak of 5,864 instances of missing youth in 2020, with 5,607 instances of located/recovered youth in that year. The agency said some children may go missing more than once per year, but then come back. ”

“Templeton is calling for a full audit of the issue, as previous Auditor General audits haven’t brought progress in transparency.[uh… yeah… that would be nice.I highly doubt that will happen…]

“They are not changing what they need to do to fix it,” Templeton said. “And in past years of audits, you can see how many times they’ve failed to do what they’re supposed to do. And then it’s a repeating problem the next year in the audit. So whether we need a complete reform or what exactly we need to do to make sure that these children are safe, I’m willing to push for that.”

The agency said it has a dedicated unit for tracking and finding missing children.[Yeah.. right]

“If a youth is missing, our priority is their safety,” the agency said.”

[I don’t believe it⬆️]

193 youth in care of Illinois’ child welfare agency missing in 2025
[The Center Square 11/17/25 by Greg Bishop]

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